What does the future hold for nonprofit technology from one of the giants in the industry?
Ryan Ozimek, founder of Soapbox Engage and long time nonprofit IT thought leader, reflects on the trends and topics from this recent conference for the sector from Microsoft – particularly the embrace of AI and the potential of AI tools to impact the nonprofit sector.
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Microsoft Nonprofit Tech Conference Reflections
In its second year, the Microsoft Global Nonprofit Leaders Summit drew nonprofit sector and IT activists from around the world to discuss new tools, new partnerships, and new needs.
Listen to Ryan Ozimek in conversation with Carolyn Woodard on his reflections on trends that were discussed and explored at this conference
Some Key Takeaways:
- Big changes are happening fast – Ryan sees this era as strikingly similar to 1999 when we all got online on this new thing “the internet.”
- To prepare as a nonprofit: don’t feel you have to dive in the deep end but be aware that in a short time we will all be swimming in this pool.
- Take the time to think out smart investments in your people and your tech to use new tools in ways that work for you.
- Many companies went boom and bust in the dot.com bubble. AI will be similar. Nonprofits can wait for the leading tools and techniques to emerge and become valuable.
- Generational change is painfully evident in AI adoption.
- How does the nonprofit sector take full advantage of young people understanding new technologies, especially AI, intuitively?
- The nonprofit sector is itself always looking to find new opportunities and find ways to do more with what we have. Don’t be afraid to be innovators and share what you learn with your peers and with the tech industry.
- AI is everywhere and will be everywhere.
- How can we use it best in our sector?
- How can our sector push AI tools to be better?
- Two and a half things for nonprofits to prepare to be able to find opportunities in this new world:
- Start with what problems we are trying to solve and fit the tech to that.
- Be prepared to be more agile and more nimble than ever before.
- AI agents can help you build the framework to describe your needs. Practice asking AI “what are the types of questions I should be asking you to help me solve my organization’s problems?”
- It’s important to deeply understand the tech savviness of your nonprofit. How ready are you for change? Opportunities are also coming at us really fast and not every opportunity will be a good fit.
- Last year at this summit the message was “Copilot is your copilot and it will help you with everything.”
- This year Ryan heard that multiple agents that specialize in certain tasks/things will be more helpful than a “generalist” AI. You will need to find the AI agent that can help do the exact thing that you need done. We will all need to learn to ask the right AI agent the right questions.
- What is the expected impact on nonprofit jobs?
- People will be able to be more productive, more able to help the organization meet the mission. Nonprofits will be augmenting their people with AI agents doing the grunt work.
- Think now about what you can automate. What is there that you have to have done that a person doesn’t have to do? This will free your staff to better meet your community needs.
- Let’s meet our missions better and bigger than we ever have, because the world has lots of needs right now. The nonprofit sector/social sector will have more and more challenges in the current environment – so making the sector more productive with AI will help it meet needs that are only growing.
Presenters
Ryan Ozimek is the co-founder of Soapbox Engage, a twenty-five year old technology company serving nonprofits exclusively with fundraising, engagement and nonprofit management solutions. Since 2001, he has brought software services to the hard-working non-profits and socially responsible businesses that make our world a better place. From enhancing online communications to building mission critical online applications, Soapbox has positioned itself as a leader in Web software development, leveraging existing technologies and building unique solutions for the non-profit sector.
Invited to the Microsoft Global Nonprofit Leaders Summit in its inaugural year last year and again this spring, Ryan shared with Carolyn his impressions and takeaways from this gathering of nonprofits, funders, Microsoft partners and Microsoft thought leaders and engineers. You too can benefit from his Microsoft nonprofit tech conference reflections.
Carolyn Woodard is currently head of Marketing and Outreach at Community IT Innovators. She has served many roles at Community IT, from client to project manager to marketing. With over twenty years of experience in the nonprofit world, including as a nonprofit technology project manager and Director of IT at both large and small organizations, Carolyn knows the frustrations and delights of working with technology professionals, accidental techies, executives, and staff to deliver your organization’s mission and keep your IT infrastructure operating. She has a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Johns Hopkins University and received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Williams College.
She was happy to have this podcast conversation with Ryan Ozimek on his Microsoft nonprofit tech conference reflections. More on our Microsoft resources here.
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Transcript coming soon!
Photo by Terren Hurst on Unsplash